"So, Austin, Ally, are you guys dating?"

Ally looks at her best friend across the table, and he looks right back at her. Neither of them is surprised enough to look embarrassed.

"No," they say simultaneously to the girl who asked.

Their friend Trish starts laughing, clearly the most uncomfortable one at the table. "Yeah, they're not dating, Cassidy," she says to her friend.

"Just friends," Ally confirms with a nod.

Cassidy looks between them for a second, but then she shrugs and keeps eating her food. "Sorry if I just made things awkward," she says.

"Nah, we get that a lot," Ally says.

Austin looks at her and raises his eyebrows. We do?

She raises her eyebrows right back at him. Where have you been since we met?

They've only known each other about six months; they met at the beginning of the school year when they ran into each other at the elevator in their dorm. Since he only lives right down the hall from her and she knew she liked him on sight, they've been practically inseparable ever since. Needless to say, she's gotten asked once or twice if they're dating. She got embarrassed and awkward at first, but now she's so used to people thinking they're dating it doesn't even faze her.

"Well, Cassidy and I should probably get to class," Trish says. "I mean, Cassidy should. I think I'm gonna skip and go nap. Senioritis is hitting me hard."

"Trish, we're freshmen," Ally reminds her friend.

"You mean we haven't even been in college a year?!" Trish asks dramatically. "I'm never gonna survive till graduation!"

"It was nice meeting you guys," Cassidy says in between giggles.

"Nice to meet you too," Austin and Ally say at the same time. They immediately look at each other and narrow their eyes at one another.

"You need to stop that," Ally says.

"You need to stop that," Austin replies immediately.

Ally rolls her eyes. "See you later – " She cuts herself off when she looks up to find that Cassidy and Trish are already gone. "Oh."

"Hey, what did you mean 'We get that a lot?'" Austin asks. "People have asked us that before?"

"They've asked me. Have they not asked you?"

Austin shakes his head. "I mean, I'm sure people think it, but no one's ever asked me."

Ally shrugs and smiles sweetly. "Maybe I'm just more approachable."

"Maybe. Or maybe people are always asking you because they wanna date me," Austin says.

Ally rolls her eyes. "Oh, sure. Every girl's immediate response when I say that we aren't dating is to ask for your number."

"And you don't give it to them?!" Austin asks incredulously.

"Nope," Ally replies, shaking her head.

"I thought we were supposed to be friends," Austin says with a pout.

"Don't know why you would think that."

"You're just not giving it to them because you like me," Austin decides, taking one more bite of his lunch.

Ally looks at him. "Why must you ruin everything?"

He shrugs. "It's the only explanation."

"I'm not having this conversation with you." She stands up, and he follows her to drop their empty plates off at the dish station.

"You started it," he says.

"I definitely did not. You realize I was joking, right? No one has ever asked for your number."

"Whatever."

"Oh my – don't get all pouty on me," she says, struggling to keep up with his long strides as they walk to the elevator.

"I'm not pouty."

"You're kinda pouty."

"No I'm not." He slows down a little and bumps her hip with his, so she knows he's not actually upset.

"Whatever you say." She tries to retaliate, but he dodges her and tries to shove her into a bush. She manages to grab his arm so she doesn't fall, but she lets go as soon as he flexes trying to get out of her grip.

"You're such a child," he tells her with a sarcastic smile once they're in the elevator.

"Oh, yeah, I'm the child."

"Thank you for admitting it."

She rolls her eyes. "You're an idiot."

"Thanks, sweetie."

"I hate that nickname."

"What nickname, sweetie?"

"The only nickname you're using." They step out of the elevator.

Austin grins at her. "But it's so cute!"

"Whatever. I'll see you later."

She starts walking down the hall to her room.

"Don't be mad, sweetie!" he calls after her.

She flips him off without looking back.

"Rude!"

As she does homework in her room that night, Ally starts getting a little worried. Usually Austin would've texted by now. But when she checks her phone, she realizes that he texted her right on time, but she just didn't get the notification.

Today 11:08 PM

austin moon: Are you awake?

Me: always

Me: what's up?

austin moon: I'm coming over

As soon as she reads the text, there's a knock at her door. "It's open," she calls, putting her homework away and hopping up on her bed.

Austin walks in silently, shutting and locking the door behind him. His hair is wet and he's barefoot, wearing black joggers and a faded t-shirt of his favorite band.

"Hi," she says to him. She watches him make his way over to her bed and collapse onto it face first, his head landing right next to where she's sitting. "What's wrong?" she asks.

Wordlessly, he grabs her hand and puts it on his head. She starts combing her fingers through his hair instinctively. It's routine at this point.

"Thank you," he says, his voice muffled. Then he turns his head to face her. "What's wrong with me?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why don't girls like me?"

"They do like you."

"Not really."

"What happened to 'Everyone wants to know if we're dating because they wanna date me?'" she asks, doing her best impression of his voice.

"Nighttime Austin gets sad."

"Well, girls do like you. All your exes liked you."

"Not anymore."

"You know other people like you."

"Like who?"

"You do remember that the foundation of our friendship is that I liked you so I wanted to be friends with you, right?"

"Yeah…Hey, if everyone thinks we're dating, why aren't we?"

Her heart stops for a second, and she pauses her hand in his hair. "What?"

He turns his head and sits up a little, gently taking her hand out of his hair and putting it at her side. "I dunno. Maybe we should just do something, see if it feels right, and go from there."

"I don't understand."

"You're cute, funny, sweet, smart, and I like hanging out with you. And you like me. So maybe…"

"Austin, I'm not gonna 'just do something' if you're not sure about it. I'm not putting myself in that position."

"What position?"

"The position to get hurt and possibly lose you completely if you suddenly decide you're not into me and it ends badly."

"You think you would lose me completely if we tried something and it didn't work out?"

"I don't know. But it's not a risk I wanna take."

"Oh. That's fair. Now c'mere, it's your turn for head scratches."

She appreciates how he doesn't dwell on it or push her. It's hard enough for her to say no to trying something with him as it is. She smiles a little and scoots down so she can lean her head on his chest and drape an arm over his stomach. He starts combing his fingers through her hair, but she can tell he's lost in thought. She closes her eyes, listening to the sound of his heartbeat and letting her mind wander into an alternate reality where he's more than her best friend.

Cut to three hours later, and she's half asleep, half on top of him, and half in love with him. Their legs are a tangled mess and she's pretty sure if anyone saw them they wouldn't be able to tell which legs are whose. He's running the fingertips of one hand over her back under her shirt, and his other hand is holding her wrist where her hand is on his shoulder, her thumb drawing small circles at the base of his neck.

Suddenly he grabs her hand and flips her over so she's on her back and he's hovering over her, one hand pinned to her bed off to the side and the other moving into his hair. She stares up at him.

"Do you know what time it is?" she asks him.

He shakes his head, brushing a strand of hair out of her face and then tracing his thumb along her lower lip.

"When I look at the clock and see how late it is, I'll have to leave, and I'm not ready to do that yet." He pulls on her lip a little and then lets go, so that when it meets her top lip again it makes a faint popping noise.

"Stop that," she whines.

He laughs and grabs her free hand still on the bed, intertwining their fingers.

"You know I hate it when you do that," she tells him.

"We wouldn't be best friends if I didn't use that against you."

"Yeah, because this is definitely best friend stuff."

"Best friends hug all the time."

"This is hugging?"

"Horizontal hugging. Shh, don't ruin it."

She smiles a little, and he leans down so their foreheads and noses are touching. Her smile immediately fades and she swallows, closing her eyes and combing her fingers through his hair again to try to calm herself down.

"You okay?" he asks her quietly.

"Mmhm."

"Good. Can I say something stupid?"

"You always do."

"It is taking every ounce of my willpower not to kiss you right now."

She swallows again, not trusting herself to speak yet. Please just do it. Four syllables. It would be way too easy.

"It's scary how right it feels being with you," he continues. His breath on her lips is almost too much. "Like all this?" He squeezes her hand to make his point. "It feels really, really right. Scary right."

"Yeah," she manages quietly. All it would take is a slight tilt of the head. It would be so easy.

He beats her to the catch. She's kissing him back before she even processes that he's kissing her. He puts more of his weight on top of her, and she pulls him as close as he can get without suffocating her.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knows that this is exactly what she didn't want: she vaguely remembers telling him earlier specifically that they shouldn't try anything. Something about not wanting to get her feelings involved when he isn't sure of his.

It's a little late for that now.

Plus, he seems pretty sure of how he's feeling from the way he's kissing her.

While that tiny part of her is overthinking and regretting and warning her that this is a bad idea, the rest of her mind is exploding and imploding and racing and going blank all at the same time. And it's incredible.

When he eventually does pull away, she can't even remember how to breathe properly, much less how to form coherent thoughts. Does she even remember her own name?

He lets go of her hand and runs his thumb over her cheek. She can feel his heartbeat on her chest.

"You can't possibly still be thinking about leaving after that," she manages after a couple minutes of silence. When she opens her eyes to look up at him, he's already watching her, a tiny smile on his lips and he brushes his fingertips over her face.

"I'm not going anywhere, sweetie."

She immediately feels the color rush out of her flushed face and she looks at him with a completely deadpan stare. "You really do ruin everything."

She pushes him off her and turns so her back is facing him, but his laugh from behind her is so cute she can't pout properly. She feels his arm around her and he pulls her into him, and she immediately decides she could get used to this.

"I'm sorry," he says, his voice reverberating in his chest against her back. "Can we kiss and make up now?"

"Isn't it like two in the morning? We should probably sleep."

"Maybe. But I think I'd rather make out."

She turns to face him. "Do you make out with all your best friends?"

He rolls his eyes and kisses her again. Then he pulls away, says "No," and then kisses her yet again.

"He kissed you?!" Trish nearly screams as soon as Ally tells her the next day.

Ally giggles and nods. "So many times!"

"How far did you guys go?!"

"I mean…nothing more than making out. He did end up sleeping over, though. But he's done that before."

"He has?"

Ally nods.

"Y'all are not best friends, my dear," Trish tells her. "You're somewhere between best friends and friends with benefits and dating. Don't ask how that's possible, but that's where you guys are. Have you talked since?"

Ally's smile fades. "Yeah, but he's kinda acting like it never happened. I mean, I guess he's being a little flirtier than usual, but…that's it."

Trish frowns. Then her eyes shift to something behind Ally. "Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Hey, Austin," she says to him as he walks over to their table in the dining hall and sits down. "So, you kissed Ally last night?"

Austin chokes on his food and starts coughing, and Ally chokes on literally nothing and starts coughing too.

"Trish!" Ally exclaims.

"You told her?!" Austin asks, looking over at her.

"Did you seriously think I wouldn't?!"

"Uh, yeah, kinda!"

"Are you mad at me?!"

"A little!"

"Okay, I'm just gonna go…" Trish says as she stands up. Ally doesn't even bother trying to stop her. She'll deal with Trish's blabbermouth issues later.

"Why the hell are you mad at me?!" Ally asks him.

"You immediately went and told people!"

"I've been keeping Trish updated since I met you!" she exclaims. "Of course I'm gonna tell her when you kiss me!"

"I can't believe you!"

Austin stands up and storms off, taking his half-empty plate to the dish station. Ally follows before he can get too far.

"You can't be serious!" Ally says, narrowing her eyes. "You can't just do that and then get embarrassed!"

"I'm not embarrassed!" he snaps. "I just didn't really want people knowing about my private life!"

"Okay, well, Trish is my friend, and it's my life too!"

Austin rolls his eyes and gets in the elevator. Ally follows him.

"Whatever, Ally."

"Don't whatever me," she says, crossing her arms.

He doesn't say anything. As soon as the elevator stops, he steps out and storms into his room, slamming the door behind him. Ally clenches her jaw and marches down the hall to hers, doing the same. Then she immediately collapses on her bed (which still smells like him) and screams into a pillow (which also, you guessed it, smells like him).

After sitting in her room in silence for a few hours just fuming, she gets a text from Austin.

Today 3:34 PM

austin moon: Hey, I'm sorry about earlier.

austin moon: I'm still upset that you told her though

austin moon: But we'll be okay.

austin moon: If you wanna come over we can talk

austin moon: Or I can come to you

She appreciates him telling her they're gonna be okay. Whenever they fight, even over dumb stuff (which is way too often), she gets irrationally worried that it'll be the end of their friendship. He's way too used to it by now, but because of that any time they fight he still makes sure to remind her that he still loves her and that they're gonna be okay. It's one of the little things she loves about him.

She walks over to his room and takes a deep breath, knocking on the door. He opens it immediately, his shirt off, his hair a mess, and his face exhausted.

"Hey," he says, stepping aside so she can walk in.

"Hey," she says hesitantly, walking over to sit on his bed. He leans against the bed next to her.

"So…I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier."

"Yeah."

"I guess I just didn't wanna be confronted with what happened until I could think things over."

"I thought you knew how you felt and that's why you kissed me."

"I don't know. It was late. All I knew was that I wanted you."

Her heart drops. "So you're saying it wasn't real. That all of it meant nothing."

"I wasn't done yet," he says calmly. "Now I know that I still want you. That even just thinking about being with you still feels right. That you feel right."

"Just tell me how you feel about me," she says exasperatedly.

"I like you," he says slowly. "I haven't felt like this in a while, so I'm kinda hesitant, but…I know how I feel now. Ally, you're my best friend and my go-to for everything. Plus, you're kinda everything I could ever want in a girlfriend and a best friend all wrapped into one ridiculously cute person. And you don't put up with my bullshit, which no one has ever really done before."

She swallows. "Your feelings came on kinda fast. Coincidently when you got the tiniest bit of action for the first time in a long time."

"Ally, I think we both know my feelings for you have been there for a while, I just needed a catalyst to realize them."

"Now more than ever I don't wanna get hurt. Or ruin our friendship."

"I would never hurt you."

"You already have hurt me."

"And we got through it. What better way of knowing our relationship will be solid than knowing how solid our friendship is? We've been through thick and thin, blowout fights and childish bickering. We could make it."

Ally stays silent for a while, searching his eyes. She knows him well enough to be able to tell that he's being genuine. His eyes are wide and earnest, but he's also looking at her with that adoration she's only seen flickers of before. It catches her a little off guard.

"Please?" he tries.

"Austin, you know I want nothing more than to be with you. But is it worth the risk."

"I think it is. I think we'll last."

She presses her lips together. Then, she can't handle it anymore and she grabs his face and kisses him. It's barely even been a day, but she missed this so much.

He kisses her back immediately, but then he pulls away just slightly. "Date me," he says against her lips in that one deep voice that always makes her laugh.

She smiles, unable to stop herself. "Okay."

yeah i'm a whore for cuddling w my hot best friend but that ended so i'm writing about it now thanks for reading!

(don't judge me)

p.s. the formatting is actual ass i apologize